Sunday | July 12, 2015 5:00 pm

Tormento

Screening on Film

Directed by Raffaello Matarazzo.
With Amedeo Nazzari, Yvonne Sanson, Annibale Betrone.
Italy, 1950, 35mm, black & white, 98 min.
Italian with English subtitles.
Print source: Cineteca di Bologna

After the grand success of Yvonne Sanson and Amedeo Nazzari as star-crossed lovers in Raffaello Matarazzo’s Chains, Titanus quickly reteamed all three in a string of remarkable melodramas. The second in this series, Tormento places the star couple at the center of an ensemble piece about a middle-class community striving to improve itself, but torn apart by jealousy and hypocrisy. The film’s rising count of crises reaches a fever pitch that is truly operatic yet always grounded by Matarazzo’s gift for realistic detail.